FORE:The implications of such an ethical standard are, on the whole, conservative; it is assumed that social institutions are, taking them altogether, nearly the best possible at any moment; and that our truest wisdom is to make the most of them, instead of sighing for some other sphere where our grand aspirations or volcanic passions might find a readier outlet for their feverish activity. And if the teaching of the first Stoics did not take the direction here indicated, it was because they, with the communistic theories inherited from their Cynic predecessors, began by condemning all existing social distinctions as irrational. They wished to abolish local religion, property, the family, and the State, as a substitute for which the whole human race was to be united under a single government, without private possessions or slaves, and with a complete community of women and children.79 It must, however, have gradually dawned on them that such a radical subversion of the present system was hardly compatible with their belief in the providential origin of all things; and that, besides this, the virtues which they made it so much their object to recommend, would be, for the most part, superfluous in a communistic society. At the same time, the old notion of S?phrosyn as a virtue which consisted in minding ones own business, or, stated more generally, in discerning and doing whatever work one is best fitted for, would continue to influence ethical teaching, with the effect of giving more and more individuality to the definition of duty. And the36 Stoic idea of a perfect sage, including as it did the possession of every accomplishment and an exclusive fitness for discharging every honourable function, would seem much less chimerical if interpreted to mean that a noble character, while everywhere intrinsically the same, might be realised under as many divergent forms as there are opportunities for continuous usefulness in life.80Next in order are strains. As the cutting action is the source of strains, and as the resistance offered by the cutting tools is as the length or width of the edges, it will be found in the present case that while other conditions thus far have pointed to small proportions, there is now a new one which calls for large proportions. In displacing the metal between teeth of three-quarters of an inch pitch, the cutting edge or the amount of surface acted upon is equal to a width of one inch and a half. It is true, the displacement may be small at each cut, but the strain is rather to be based upon the breadth of the acting edge than the actual displacement of metal, and we find here strains equal to the average duty of a large planing machine. This strain radiates from the cutting point as from a centre, falling on the supports of the work with a tendency to force it from the framing. Between the rack and the crank-shaft bearing, through the medium of the tool, cutter bar, connection, and crank pin, and in various directions and degrees, this strain may be followed by means of a simple diagram. Besides this cutting strain, there are none of importance; the tension of the belt, the side thrust in bearings, the strain from the angular thrust of the crank, and the end thrust of the tool, although not to be lost sight of, need not have much to do with problems of strength, proportion, and arrangement.
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